Hollywood agencies join push for 50% indie spending rule for streamers

CAA, WME and UTA have joined a new coalition calling for major changes to how streamers operate in the United States.

The three agencies have signed on as founding members of the American Entertainment Alliance, Variety reported on 15 October 2026. The move places Hollywood's main talent representatives alongside independent producers in a joint lobbying effort.

The Alliance wants US legislation to require streaming providers including Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+ to spend at least 50% of their budgets on independent productions, meaning films and series made by outside companies rather than by the platforms themselves. Other founding members named in the report include Anonymous Content, Blumhouse, Imagine Entertainment, Legendary Entertainment, MRC, North Road, Producers United, Propagate Content, law firm Ziffren Brittenham and producer Jeff Sagansky.

The group is also seeking a change to ownership rules. It wants licensing and syndication rights, meaning the right to re-sell a show or film after its first run, to revert to the production company after a few years. It also calls for transparency in the recommendation algorithms that decide what viewers find, in order to prohibit platform self-preferencing, meaning favouring a platform's own titles over others.

The Alliance describes itself as a united group of independent production companies, talent agencies and industry workers. It says it is advocating for federal production incentives and a modern approach to creative ownership for the streaming era, according to its website.

Its case rests on jobs and output figures. The American Entertainment Alliance states the US television and motion picture business has lost more than 100,000 jobs since its late-2022 peak, a decline of nearly 35%. It says total employment hours for below-the-line crew members, meaning the technicians, builders, drivers and operators who staff a set, fell by 45 million hours per year compared with 2022 levels, citing IATSE.

For viewers, this means the dispute is about who gets to make shows and where those shows can be seen later. The Alliance states that streamers cut US scripted commissions, meaning orders for new drama and comedy series, by 41% between 2022 and 2025. It puts the current US share of global production at 34% for film and 42% for television.